Daily News Briefs

Grant Schrag, PhD, has been appointed corporate R&D manager for CeramTec North America Corp. He will be responsible for developing new processes, technologies and products for the company's New Lebanon, N.Y., and Laurens, S.C., facilities. Schrag was recently director of R&D at a small start-up company and was previously a product development engineer at CeramTec's New Lebanon operations. He holds patents on VacOptix sealing technology for hermetically sealed viewports/windows and ConTorr UHV gasket seal rings. CeramTec, a subsidiary of CeramTec AG, makes custom-engineered ceramic products with automotive, electronic and electrical, structural, hermetic, functional and mechanical applications. . . . Gamma Scientific, a San Diego, Calif.-based optical radiation calibration laboratory and manufacturer of precision light measurement instruments, announced it has launched a new Web site, at www.gamma-sci.com, that provides access to its entire product line, searchable by application or instrument type. The site also provides general light measurement information, including tutorials on a wide variety of measurement subjects. . . . Matthew Nordan has been hired as vice president of research by Lux Research, a nanotechnology research and advisory firm based in New York. Nordan formerly worked for Forrester Research, where he most recently ran its North American project consulting business. He has been a guest commentator on CNN and CNBC on emerging technology markets and has been widely cited in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.